Wrong place, Wrong time
by paint mouse
Summary: One Shot, short story about a young girl named Amber and how a wrong turn changed her world forever.


Disclaimer: I do not own Batman or any of the characters associated with the franchise. I own the plot to this story and any original characters.

** Wrong place, Wrong time**

Amber walked down the poorly lit streets of Gotham. She knew that she had to get home before dark, before the city truly turned in on itself. It had been almost three months since Bane had brought the great city to its knees, and people were starting to lose what grip on reality they had left. Food was running short, money no longer had any value, and looting was now a daily job for most the residents still alive.

Amber quickened her pace down the road. The sun was quickly disappearing behind the sky line - night was coming. As she made her way down the cluttered, snow covered streets, her paranoia was starting to get the best of her. A bottle toppled over down a darkened alley, causing her to jump and pull her coat tighter around her as her fast pace turned into a jog. Left, right, left. The streets all started to look the same, until she found herself on Main Street, just doors down from the court house. The building where Dr. Jonathan Crane, the man best known as Scare Crow, had condemned Gotham's richest to death. The building that Bane called home. _How could she have gotten so turned around so far off track?_ How could she have allowed herself to wind up here. "Such a idiot," she rambled to herself.

Maybe if she didn't look up and just kept her pace she would go unnoticed. Just maybe they would let her go about her way unharassed. Just maybe she would make it home in one piece.

Bane looked out over his fallen the light would fade and Gotham would truly come alive. He had just dispatched a handful of his men to scour the city for police officers and civil servants that have been hiding from their impending court appearance. Bane watched as his men left the building below, but instead of taking to their appointed routes, they had become sidetracked with someone on the street. The look in his eye was enough to tell that he was smirking underneath that metal mask. Let his men have their fun. They needed a break from it all.

Amber stopped dead in her tracks when she saw the court house doors open. Somewhere in her mind she thought, _if I'm not moving they won't see me._.. A plan that, unfortunately, failed. As the men walked out of the court house she caught their attention right off the bat and they made their way over to where she was standing, petrified.

Five men soon surrounded Amber. "Hey there little girl, what happened? You get lost?" one of the men said as he took a step closer. Amber slowly looked up at the men. She was terrified that these were Bane's men, murderers of the worst kind: they didn't just kill you. They tortured you, did whatever was necessary to get what they needed from you. She knew she was not going to be walking away from this.

One of the men stepped closer to her, grabbed her by the hair, and pulled her close. "My friend here asked you a question. So what is it honey? Get lost?"

Amber opened her mouth so say something but nothing would come out, only faint squeaks and muffled murmurs.

With that she was tossed to the ground. She lay there, each second feeling like an hour, contemplating what was going to happen next. _So it's like this, is it,_ she thought to herself. She had been in this position before, forced the ground at the hands of an egotistical self-loving man. She remembered the last time this happened. She had vowed to herself to never go down without a fight again, to never again be at someone else's mercy and will. She looked up at them, and then something in her had changed, almost snapped. If this was to happen, then she would not be the scared little girl they wanted her to be.

One of the men bent down and grabbed her by the shirt collar. He dragged her to her feet, brought her in close to his face, and licked the side of her cheek. He smelled vile, like rotten meat and onions. Her stomach turned and she fought the urge to vomit. "Mmm you taste nice," he sneered. "Like peaches. Can't wait to taste the rest of you." Before he could follow through with his threat, she reared her head back and then forward and connected it with his nose. There was a soft cracking sound and she was hurled to the ground once again. The man held his nose, blood running through his fingers. "You stupid bitch!" he muffled out through his hand. "She broke my damn nose! Get her!" And at that, all hell broke loose.

Up in the window of the court house, Bane stood watching. With a raised eye brow he mused to himself, _maybe this would be more interesting than he had originally thought._

Amber quickly scrambled to her feet_. Now there were four, _she thought. One of the remaining men moved in and took a swing at her. She ducked to just barely miss the swing and found herself with the perfect opening. She punched him as hard as she could in his gut, bringing the man to his knees and leaving her open yet once again for her knee to connect with his face. Unfortunately she learned the hard way that it wasn't all like in the movies and when her knee connected with his face it knocked out several of his teeth causing them to slice threw her jeans and knee. She tried her best to ignore the pain and the feel of blood running down her leg. _Now there were three_. She balled up her fists and brought them to her face, as if to say, "Who's next?" But before she had a chance to make her move she realized that there were only two men in front of her and before she could react she was grabbed from behind. She thrashed about as he held her tight to his chest, her arms pinned to her side. It wasn't the hit to the face that got her attention, or the punch to the chest. It was the sleek silver and black handle sticking out of one of the men's pants that was her only hope of getting out of this alive. She kicked wildly, knocking one man to the ground, only to leave herself wide open for the man with the gun in his belt to back hand her. Her head swung wildly to the side as blood ran freely from her mouth. Another hit to the face. She looked up at him through her tangled, bloodied hair and a small grin crept across her face.

"You think this if funny, little girl?" the armed man said as he reared up to hit her again. Only this time she twisted just right to where he missed and connected with the shoulder of the man holding her, leaving her open the throw her head back, busting open the lips of the man holding her and causing him to drop her.

Bane still watching from above new where with was going. It was time to end this. He turned and made his way to the elevator at the other side of the room.

Before Amber could bring herself to her feet, one of the men kicked her hard in the stomach sending her flying. She rolled across the ground, a motionless lump in the middle of the road. The three remaining men made their way over to her. They had to admit this was not the type of action they wanted to be receiving from her. They would all be hurting from this little adventure for the rest of the night.

Amber lay in the middle of the road. She looked up at the stars now shining brightly in the sky. It was starting to snow. A single tear rolled down her face as her view of the sky was soon obstructed by three faces. This was it, her last chance. The man with the gun stood at her feet. One of the men spit on her, and as he did she used what strength she had left and launched herself up, putting all her force onto the gun man's knee, hyper extending it. He crumbled to the ground in agony. Bringing the man and the gun into reach, she grabbed the gun, rolling over onto her back, pointing it at the first man that came into focus and fired. He fell to the ground in a gurgling heap as he grasped at the gaping hole in his neck, before going silent. Before she could take aim again, the last man threw himself on top of her grabbing for the gun. They fought back and forth trading slaps and cheap punches in an attempt to get hold of the gun.

Before either one of them could claim it, the man pinning her to the ground was lifted off and tossed to the side, taking the gun with him. Amber was left there staring up at Gotham's worst nightmare. Bane towered over her, fists clenched, looking down at her as if she were a fly that got caught on a wall.

"Tell me girl, what is it you thought you would do after killing my men? Did you think that you could get far enough away to where you wouldn't be found?" His voice seemed to rattle right through her. It was cold and commanding in a mechanical sort of way.

Once again Amber found herself paralyzed with fear and unable to move or speak. The longer she lay there underneath his massive form the more pain slowly started to seep its way in. He bent over and pulled her up to his face by her shirt collar, hissing through the mask on his face, "Well, girl? I'm waiting for an answer." His eyes were locked on hers. He could see the fear dripping off of her, he could smell it. She looked at him, trembling under his grip. "What does my answer matter? You're going to kill me anyway." She spat at him, which deep down she knew was a mistake, but in her heart she knew she was dead anyway, and, like before, she would not go down without a fight. Bane gave her one last look. "You're right." She could tell by the look in his eyes that this was it, that she was nothing more than an obstacle in the way of his men. And with that, he tossed her across the street through the window of the department store, a motionless heap in a pile of glass and fixtures.

Bane looked back over at his men. She had put up one hell of a fight, but his men were stupid and should not have let it go on that long. "Back to your job," he commanded. He looked one last time at Amber's lifeless body. His eyes led you to believe that under that metal mask he was smiling, and he walked back to the court house.


End file.
